A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recordable disk recording controller for use in a multi-media computer system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a recordable compact disk (CD-R)/rewritable compact disk (CD-RW) recording controller with a batch register controller for improving the rate of recording a signal representative of signal data on a CD-R/CD-RW disk.
B. Description of the Related Art
Conventional multi-media computer systems include a CD-R/CD-RW driver for recording multi-media signals on a CD-R/CD-RW disk. One example of the conventional multi-media computer systems is described in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,940,358, which is cited in the following with reference to FIGS. 1(a) and 1(b).
FIG. 1(a) is a block diagram showing a conventional multi-media computer system 10 including a host processor 11, a CD-R/CD-RW controller 12, a micro-controller 13, a buffer 14, a CD-R/CD-RW driver 15, a ROM 16, and a RAM 17. FIG. 1(b) is a flow-chart illustrating the method employed by the conventional multi-media computer system 10 for recording a signal representative of signal data on a CD-R/CD-RW disk (not shown). The host processor 11 comprises a central processing unit to send a multi-media signal, encoded as signal data, and commands to specify information required for recording the signal.
The CD-R/CD-RW controller 12 receives signal data (step 110 shown in FIG. 1(b)) and commands from the host processor 11, and generates recording signals to record on the CD-R/CD-RW disk a signal representative of signal data. The CD-R/CD-RW controller 12 sends the commands to the micro-controller 13, which in turn generates a set of control signals to cause the CD-R/CD-RW controller 12 to record on the CD-R/CD-RW disk a signal representative of signal data. The CD-R/CD-RW controller 12 stores in the buffer 14 signal data received from the host processor 11. In response to control signals generated by the micro-controller 13, the CD-R/CD-RW controller 12 retrieves signal data from the buffer 14 and generates recording signals to record a signal representative of signal data on the CD-R/CD-RW disk located in the CD-R/CD-RW driver 15.
To generate such control signals, the micro-controller 13 generates a table corresponding to each command (step 120 shown in FIG. 1(b)) and generates control signals from the table. The ROM 16 stores information used to generate such table, and the micro-controller 13 accordingly accesses the ROM 16 to generate the table corresponding to a command. A table contains information necessary for encoding signal data on several sectors during a recording operation.
In the conventional multi-media computer system, the micro-controller 13 stores in the RAM 17 a table generated corresponding to each command (step 130 shown in FIG. 1(b)). The micro-controller 13 then accesses such a table from the RAM 17, and generates control signals to the CD-R/CD-RW controller 12 using information in the table (step 140 shown in FIG. 1(b)). Due to such access, the micro-controller 13 potentially accesses the RAM 17 to generate control signals for recording signal data on each sector.
One problem with such a conventional multi-media computer system 10 is that the micro-controller 13 may not have enough throughput performance to support high-speed recording requirements of current computer systems because the micro-controller 13 may make a high number of accesses to the RAM 17 for accessing information in a table.
Due to the throughput performance problems and consequent inability to generate control signals at a sufficient speed, the micro-controller 13 may fail to generate control signals at a corresponding rate at which signal data is received by the CD-R/CD-RW controller 12. Due to such failure, the CD-R/CD-RW controller 12 misses recording a portion of signal data on the CD-R/CD-RW disk located in CD-R/CD-RW driver 15. The quality of recorded signals therefore is unacceptable.
In view of the above-described drawbacks of the conventional CD-R/CD-RW recording controller, an object of the present invention is to provide a recordable disk recording controller that improves the communication efficiency between the encoder controller and the micro-controller. As a result, the recordable disk recording controller according to the present invention never misses recording signal data and achieves the acceptable quality of recoded signals.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a computer system equipped with a recordable disk recording controller whose throughput performance is enhanced. As a result, the recordable disk recording controller according to the present invention is not a performance bottleneck as in the conventional multi-media computer system during a recording operation.
According to the present invention, a recordable disk recording controller comprises a host interface for receiving a set of signal data and a command from a host processor. A data buffer manager receives the signal data and the command from the host interface and sends the command to a micro-controller. The micro-controller generates a set of register batches from each command and sends the register data and index of the register batch to a batch register controller. The batch register controller receives the register data and index of the register batch from the micro-controller and stores the received register data and index of the register batch in a batch buffer.
Moreover, the batch register controller retrieves the register batches from the batch buffer and writes the master registers of a encoder controller based on the register index and register data of the register batches after the master registers of the encoder controller are updated into the slave registers of the encoder controller. The slave registers of the encoder controller are updated after finishing what should be done according to previous slave registers. The encoder controller generates control signals to a recording circuit depending on updated slave registers. Such control signals cause the recording circuit to record a signal representative of signal data on a recordable disk located in a recordable disk driver.
Therefore, the micro-controller only needs to send the register data that should be changed. Since the number of data sent by the micro-controller is fewer than the prior art, the present invention improves the communication efficiency between the encoder controller and the micro-controller.